Nothing has gone right in Andre Ward’s legal fight against promoter Dan Goossen. In fact, the legal battle waged by Ward’s camp against Goossen has backfired in the courts.

Andre Ward asked for arbitration with the California State Athletic Commission in June of 2013 to have his 2011 contract extension with promoter Dan Goossen declared invalid. Andy Foster upheld the contract extension as valid.

Leonard alleged that he and Goossen had an oral contract in which Leonard would be a co-promoter of Andre Ward. However, Goossen’s side claimed that Leonard wasn’t supposedly licensed as a promoter with the California State Athletic Commission. In addition, the parties involved in the Ward/Goossen agreement had to obtain approval from the California State Athletic Commission and Leonard allegedly was not a written party in that agreement. Based on this situation, Goossen filed for declaratory relief in Los Angeles Superior Court in order to get a judge to issue a ruling on the matter.

The lawsuit filed by Antonio Leonard in Texas was bumped from the state court system to the Federal court system.

Ward then filed a lawsuit against Goossen in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the December 2013 Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, Ward’s attorney Alan Rader tried to use the “7-year rule” of contract length as a violation of California’s labor code. Juxtaposed to Antonio Leonard’s lawsuit in Texas alleging that he was Ward’s co-promoter, was Andre Ward suing Goossen and his own camp in LA Superior Court without naming Leonard as a defendant?

A couple of weeks after Antonio Leonard filed his lawsuit in Texas alleging that he was a co-promoter of Andre Ward, Dan Goossen requested a second California arbitration hearing to resolve a dispute regarding an alleged breach of contract. Goossen asked for his promotional contract with Andre Ward to be extended in length. Goossen won this second arbitration hearing. Andy Foster & the deputy AG wrote that Ward’s attempt to declare the California State Athletic Commission as lacking in jurisdiction to oversee the arbitration hearings was nonsense because Ward didn’t protest CSAC’s jurisdiction in arbitration when Ward himself asked for arbitration in June of 2013.

Additionally, the second arbitration hearing produced a decision extending Ward’s contract with Goossen until November 8, 2016.

Losing various court & arbitration battles, Andre Ward is running out of options. Last week, Ward and company decided to file a lawsuit in the Northern California Federal court system against Dan Goossen. The court filing accuses Goossen of violating the Muhammad Ali Act. By the way, it’s the same court system where the trial involving state senator Leland Yee and Shrimp Boy is taking place. Yee is accused by the Feds of trying to extort individuals who wanted to keep the Athletic Commission alive.

Goossen is now punching back twice as hard against Ward by filing a $10 million dollar defamation suit against Ward & Ward’s lawyer James McCarroll. Dan’s attorney in that defamation case is Bert Fields. According to LA Superior Court records, the case was filed by a court clerk on Monday. The case number is BC554448.

Which brings us to the latest news regarding sabre rattling that we are hearing behind the scenes. A well-placed source contacted me on Wednesday night. The source stated that a person from Andre Ward’s camp wanted to talk to us. We are protecting this person’s name at the moment. The person from Ward’s camp claims that Ward is furious about what happened to him in the two arbitration decisions over the past year from Andy Foster and that Ward allegedly wants to pursue legal action against the California State Athletic Commission. The person claims that Ward is angry about Andy Foster extending the promotional agreement due to injury.

The opinion that I gave the source to relay to Ward’s camp? The same opinion I would say privately and publicly.

If Andre Ward sues the Department of Consumer Affairs & the California State Athletic Commission, he will lose and he will lose badly. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t grab the popcorn and enjoy the legal battle. However, I cannot honestly sit here and present a scenario where I think Ward would beat the Athletic Commission over the two arbitration decisions.

Thankfully, I don’t give legal advice. And thankfully I’m not the one trying to spend my own cash fighting lawyers like Farzad Tabatabai and Bert Fields in the courts. Good luck with that.

4 Responses to “Rumors that Andre Ward may file a lawsuit against the California State Athletic Commission”

This is crazy Zach. Andre Ward is wasting away his prime years with these legal battles. While the guy he dominated in the Super Six (Carl Froch). Is headlining big cards and cashing in on big paydays.

If his promotional situation with Goosen was so bad, then why did he re-up with Goosen a couple of years back?